• Each semester shall have 15 weeks of instruction. Classes shall be dismissed in the Fall for Labor Day. Classes shall be dismissed at noon for K-Day (the Friday following Labor Day), and for Martin Luther King, Jr., Day on the third Monday of January. Classes shall be dismissed at 3:00 P.M. on a Friday in October for Homecoming festivities. Normally, Winter Carnival dismissal shall be at 10:00 p.m. on the Wednesday of the fourth week of Spring semester, with classes beginning again the following Monday. The total number of annual instructional days shall be 145 1/2.
• Each semester, comprised of instructional days, holidays, and a one-week break, shall begin on a Monday and continue for sixteen weeks, followed by a five-day examination period. The beginning of the Fall semester shall be scheduled so that the last day of exams shall fall on a date in the period from December 15 through December 22, inclusive. The Spring semester shall begin on the Monday that is 24 days later.
• Fall and Spring semesters shall each have a one week break. Break in the Fall shall be the week of Thanksgiving; Spring break shall be at the midpoint of the semester.
• Fall commencement shall take place either on the Saturday immediately following the last day of classes or the last day of final exams. The latter day shall be adopted except when the end of finals is very close to Christmas. Spring commencement shall be held on the Saturday immediately following the last day of finals.
• Summer sessions shall consist of an accelerated twelve-week term beginning so that the last day of the term shall fall two weeks before the beginning of the fall semester. Accelerated courses may be offered for the full twelve weeks, or during two back-to-back 6-week sessions. These 6-week sessions shall consist of 28 days of instruction, a day for finals, and either the Memorial Day or 4th of July holidays. Class schedules shall be constructed so that summer courses provide approximately the same amount of contact hours as during the regular semester. (Half-term classes could meet for 90 minutes per day, for example, to obtain 42 contact hours.)

Other summer opportunities following alternative schedules, such as intensive field courses, may also be held during the summer session.

• The Senate will conduct a review of this calendar after one year of operation with the intent of identifying and remedying any concerns that emerge in its actual use.

Defeated by Senate: February 3, 1999